Time for Gratitude - Thanksgiving

Ok, so I know that it’s still only the beginning of November, but I have to say that I *love* this time of year – it’s time to be thankful! We are doing a “thankful” theme on the blog this month, so be looking for some really cool guest posts about that.

In my post today, though, I want to share why Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays, and for many reasons.

First of all, celebrating Thanksgiving is the one day where there isn’t anything “else”. It’s purely and simply a time to get together with family and give thanks for the bounty that God has blessed us with. There isn’t any “hunting for eggs”, “Christmas gifts and commercialism”, nor “flowers and chocolates”. Don’t get me wrong. I love Easter, Christmas, and Valentine’s as much as the next guy. Especially Christmas. There is truly something special about celebrating our Savior’s birth and everything that goes along with the Holy Day that it is. But more on that next month – ha! I’m just saying that it’s so nice to not have anything but family and our thanks on this holiday.

Secondly, Randall and I get to host it. We don’t have a huge home, but it is so fun to get everyone here and just relax and hang out together and have the kids play! My youngest brother, Otto, usually comes up the night before and last year he even made the dressing and helped get everything ready. He and one of his buddies stayed Thanksgiving night and went “Black Friday” shopping at Cabela’s sometime in the middle of the night. It was really fun having everyone here. Since he graduated from high school last year and is in school in Gillette this year, I don’t know if he’ll be able to do that again, but even if he doesn’t, it is so much fun to all get together!

Thirdly, can we talk about the food for just a minute? Yum! My sister-in-law taught me how to make a delicious turkey when we lived in Portland, and Otto told me two years ago that I make the best turkey he’s ever had. Ha! Thanks Kristi! J Not to mention my great-grandmother’s dressing recipe, my sister’s pies, and my mom’s fresh homemade buns. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it all.

Lastly, I have some of the best memories from Thanksgivings past. I don’t mean from when I was a kid, but more recently when we lived in Portland (before we had kids we lived there for about 9 years) and would get together with Randall’s brother Patrick and his wife, Kristi. Kristi also has a lifelong friend that lives in Seattle that would come down for the weekend and it was fantastic (she soon became my friend, too – love ya Terri! J). We would wake early and drink coffee all morning, and pretty much as soon as noon hit we’d start on the wine. Dinner got later and later as the years went on, but it didn’t matter. We were with the only family we had out there, and we had more fun and laughs than I can even say. It was wonderful and I miss it every year!

Things are different now that we have kids, but the feelings are just the same. There may be a little less wine and a little more food cut in bite sized pieces, but the time with family hasn’t changed, nor has the reflective thanks that we give for the things we’ve been so abundantly blessed with!

My wish for you, dear reader, is that you can reflect on what you are thankful for and what you have been blessed with. Whether things are difficult right now, or you are in a time of abundance and happiness, I challenge you to look for the blessings in your life and write them down either publicly or privately. Feel free to share what you are thankful for here in comments (we at Elegant Mommy would love to share in your blessings!), on your facebook page, or on our facebook page. Even if you don’t feel like sharing publicly, please take the time to write them down somewhere. You never know…you might be surprised at how blessed you really are J

By Evie DeWitt